A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, and to my wonderful beta reader, Rosalie! It's been a VERY long week, and your reviews were about the only bright spots in it, so I truly appreciate each and every one of them.

Chapter 35: Tris – Challenges

I perch on top of the climbing wall, Christina beside me, as we survey the route ahead. Overhead rings cross the crescent-shaped room, leading to a platform some twenty feet away. Below us, a dark cloth covers the floor, so it's impossible to tell if there's a usable path there or not.

"You know they won't be able to handle the rings, right?" Christina murmurs, trying to keep our teammates from hearing her.

"Yeah," I reluctantly agree. Tori and Shauna would be fine, but there's no point in pretending that either Susan or Cara is up to the task. They don't have enough arm strength to cross the room that way. And even if they did, I have no idea how we'd get Shauna's wheelchair across with us.

"That leaves the floor," I add, staring at the dark cloth that covers it. The idea of dropping onto that is intimidating, but at the same time, it could easily just be a scare tactic.

"If you tie the rope around your waist, I'll lower you down," Christina suggests.

I flash her a smile as I agree. There's something very Dauntless about rappelling down the back of a climbing wall to explore an unknown surface below us.

It's even more like my old faction when I reach the end of the rope – while I'm still four feet above the cloth that covers the floor. It's not really a surprise. There has to be some bravery involved in this, after all, so of course I'll have to drop the last part without knowing if it's safe or not.

Vaguely, I realize that I should take risks like this more seriously, but after all the real dangers I've faced in my life, it's hard to be afraid of a game. So, I don't even hesitate as I untie the rope from around my waist and let myself fall.

My feet snag briefly on the cloth before hitting the hard floor that's directly below it. It was just an intimidation tactic, after all.

From here, I can see that the cloth rests on a grid structure of some sort, allowing it to cover the entire floor without being directly attached to the walls. That should make it easy to lift.

So, I do, pulling the nearest piece up to see what it's hiding, and then lifting the piece beside that and the next until I find the view I need. The sight makes me grin.

A twisting tube slide leads from the platform on the other side of the room down beyond sight, winding its way around a cement ramp that spirals through the center of the parking garage. And the floor I'm on is that ramp, so from here, we should be able to just head down, following the slide to wherever it ends.

"This will work fine," I call up to Christina, noticing that Tori is now perched beside her. "Can you two get the others down here?"

Even from this distance, I can see my best friend roll her eyes. "Of course," she yells.

It doesn't take them long. They lower Shauna's wheelchair first, and then my faction-mate, followed by Cara and Susan, before they shimmy down themselves.

"Let's go," Tori declares the moment her feet touch the floor, a wild grin on her face from the drop. In that moment, her expression is utterly Dauntless, and it's enough to send Shauna and Christina racing ahead, laughing. It only takes me a second to follow suit, Tori by my side as Cara and Susan bring up the rear. I may not live in my second faction anymore, but it will always be part of me, and I will always love its energy and enthusiasm.

Shauna reaches the end first, the squeal of her brakes echoing up through the center of the garage as she calls out a warning. The rest of us skid to a stop beside her, staring at the panels of dark cloth that block the path ahead. The slide disappears through a hole in the material, so presumably that's where we need to go, too.

"Should we tear the cloth down?" Christina asks, eying it to see how sturdy it is, but I shake my head instinctively. We're guests here – we shouldn't make a mess that someone else will have to clean up.

Before I can respond aloud, Cara speaks. "We might lose points for damaging the course." I smile a little at the way the others nod. That's a valid point, too.

I guess it's not surprising that the two of us from Abnegation are the ones who step forward now. Susan and I have both done enough sewing in our lives to know that this much material can't all be one piece. There must be multiple panels that are either sewn together or that simply overlap each other.

Susan's lips lift as we both run our fingers sideways over the cloth, searching different parts of the large surface. "In something this big," she tells the others in her mild voice, "there's probably an opening, or at least a seam that we can tear without doing any real harm."

"Like this one," I respond as I separate two panels to expose an opening between them. Susan nods, taking one side as I continue to pull the other. The two of us hold the doorway open while the rest of our team heads through it, and I smile at my childhood friend as we then follow. Growing up, I certainly never imagined doing anything along these lines with Susan, and yet this moment feels completely natural.

On the other side of the opening is another wooden room – this one with a level, cement floor. Given the lack of a slope, we're probably on the bottom of the parking garage.

We cross the space warily, still following the slide that we were supposed to take, until we reach its end. It stops abruptly, some ten feet in the air, where it apparently launches its occupants onto a trampoline that leads to a pit filled with foam pieces.

"Damn – that's got to be a fun ride," Christina comments, assessing the route. I'm inclined to agree, but not aloud. It would make Susan feel bad to think that I took the less enjoyable route at my own party because she couldn't handle the overhead rings.

"You can climb up to the trampoline and jump if you want," I say instead. And for just a moment, she and Tori exchange a glance that shows they're considering it.

But Shauna shakes her head. "I'd rather beat the guys' time, which means we need to hurry." Given the contest, she has a point.

So, we continue across the room, trying to figure out what's next. It's not hard.

A large, square pool filled with black liquid sits against one wall, a target hanging above it. Nearby, a door looks like it probably leads to the next challenge, but to no one's surprise, it's locked.

"Anyone good with knives?" Shauna asks, pulling one out of a large box that rests by the end of the pool and gesturing to the target. She's right. It's obvious that we have to hit the bulls-eye to open the door.

Instantly, my mind goes to Tobias. He must have had a very easy time with this challenge. I'm not sure any of us are that good, but my gaze turns to Tori anyway. She's the only one of us who still lives in Dauntless.

"It's not my specialty," she admits, "but I'll give it a try."

Unfortunately, it quickly becomes obvious that her aim is lousy. None of her knives even reach the target. Shauna tries next, but with no more luck.

It's not until my turn that I realize there's more going on here than just our lack of skill.

"Something is knocking the knives off-target," I complain.

"Yeah, sure," Christina says with a laugh. "That's the problem. Not that you all suck at knife-throwing."

"Actually," Cara comments, her eyes on the pool, "I think Tris is right." At Christina's skeptical look, she adds, "The knives aren't following a normal curve. They drop off too steeply."

I walk over next to her, staring at the ceiling above the pool and then down into the dark liquid that fills it. There's no obvious cause in sight. "What do you think it is?"

"The fluid, or the source of the interference?" Cara asks, raising a curious eyebrow.

"Either. Both." I sigh. "Maybe it doesn't matter. Christina is right – none of us have very good aim anyway." Looking around the room, I add, "We need to find another way to reach the target."

"We could wade through the pool," Tori suggests. "This stuff can't be that deadly." But I frown. The liquid looks rather dangerous to me.

Reaching down, I dip the blade of one of the knives into the pool, pulling it out to see what it looks like afterwards. A tar-like fluid coats it, dripping slowly toward the handle before it solidifies in place a few seconds later.

"I don't know," I mutter, examining the now dry material. "It doesn't look at all safe."

"Definitely not," Cara agrees firmly. "I think we should see if there's anything we can lay over the top of the pool, so we can walk up to the target directly."

Nodding, we split up, searching the room for choices. I almost laugh as I stop at the second pool in the room – the one filled with foam pieces.

"There's a ladder here," I call to the others, reaching to see if it can be lifted out. At first, the answer seems to be no, but then I realize that it's held in place by a couple of latches that can easily be opened. And as soon as I do, it moves freely.

I've barely started pulling it up when Tori and Christina reach me, helping me lift it out of the foam pieces. It's plenty long enough to cross the pool, and we lay it across the end closest to the target, right by the wall.

Grabbing a knife, I carefully cross the ladder, resting a hand on the wall whenever I need to balance. It's definitely a lot easier than throwing knives from the other side of the pool, and I start to wonder if maybe our total time will end up being as good as Tobias' team after all. I guess it depends on how long it took them to use the rings and the slide.

I'm standing right by the target now, and I reach over, driving the knife directly into the bulls-eye. A click sounds, and I know instinctively that the door is now unlocked.

Cara swings it open as I scurry back to the floor, and then we're all heading cautiously into the next room. We're greeted by a bizarre sight.

A long, wide hallway lies ahead, the floor made of cement and leading to a door that has no handle of any kind. Overhead, envelopes of a wide variety of sizes and colors hang from the ceiling. Some are above our reach, while others are low enough to bump into our faces.

"Maybe one of those has a key for the door?" Christina suggests. But something tells me that this is more than a simple process of elimination. There's too much randomness in that, and this game is supposed to test our skills.

"Let's see," Tori states, grabbing the nearest envelope before I can stop her. She opens it, pulling out a small piece of paper. Her mouth puckers as she reads it.

"What does it say?" I ask, trying to ignore the vague sense of trepidation going through me.

Her eyes meet mine, and I'm reminded suddenly of all the dangerous moments that she and I have shared since we met. My bachelorette party shouldn't be another of them.

She clears her throat. "It says, 'Pick one to send through."

"One of us?" Shauna asks, "or one of the envelopes?"

"Presumably us," Cara answers, frowning a little as she looks at the door. "There's probably some additional challenge through there, and we're supposed to face it one at a time."

But I shake my head. "Why would there be so many envelopes, then?" The others look at me, and I add, "I mean, if we just go through one at a time, what's the point of all these?"

Cara nods, clearly understanding, and she extends a hand toward another envelope at the same time I do. We need to know what some of the others say.

Immediately, an intensely loud buzzer sounds. It echoes throughout the room, causing us all to slam our hands over our ears and cower away from the noise. It stops a moment later.

"What the hell was that?" Shauna demands.

Tori is the first to answer. "A warning, obviously." She looks around us with a slightly bitter expression. "Nobody is allowed to touch another envelope until we do what this one says."

The others nod uncomfortably, but my mind is racing ahead. We have no way of knowing what instructions the other envelopes will contain, or what's beyond the door. So, it's impossible to say if the person we "send through" will face a harder or easier challenge than the rest of us.

We also have no way of knowing what skill-set we need to keep in this room to handle what comes up next.

"So, who goes?" Christina asks.

"I'll do it," Tori begins, but the buzzer sounds again at the words.

"We get it!" I yell, my hands protecting my ears. "Shut it off already!" My last two words sound loudly through the silence after the buzzer finishes.

I give Tori a half-smile. "You picked the envelope, so you have to pick who goes. You can't go yourself, and the rest of us can't pick for you."

Tori nods thoughtfully, the frown back on her face. She runs her eyes over the group before saying, "Christina."

My best friend doesn't even hesitate before walking to the doorway. It opens for her, and she steps through. There's silence as it closes behind her.

"Do we wait?" Shauna asks after a moment, but no one knows the answer, of course.

"There's only one way to find out," I mutter, reaching for a yellow envelope that I have to jump a bit to grab. My fingers barely graze it, but it tumbles easily into my hand anyway. To all of our relief, there's no scream from the buzzer.

"Send one to fear," I read softly, feeling the words drop into my stomach.

"A fear simulation," Shauna says, nodding a little. "Probably." She opens her mouth to add something else but then closes it again, giving a wry smile. And I know why. I picked the card, so I have to be the one to pick who faces the challenge, but she wants me to know that she's willing to do it. I hold her gaze as I nod.

"Go for it, Shauna," I tell her.

To my surprise, the door opens as soon as she reaches it. Whatever Christina had to face must be done already – or else the challenge itself is held elsewhere. The latter seems more likely.

For a few seconds, I look back and forth among the remainder of my team. "Do you want to pick one?" I finally ask Susan. She smiles shyly as she nods, and I see her reach for a gray envelope.

"Send one to think," she reads aloud. Cara's eyes light up at the same instant my gaze moves to her. This one is an easy decision, and it doesn't take Susan long to make the request.

"Cara, would you do the honors?"

"Absolutely." Cara grins before heading out, and again the door opens for her immediately. The challenges must definitely be held somewhere else.

That leaves three of us. Glancing between Tori and Susan, I reach for a deep blue envelope that reminds me of Tobias' eyes.

The buzzer sounds shrilly before my fingers even touch.

"Okay, okay," I pant, trying to clear the sound from my head. Man, that thing is loud. "I guess we're supposed to take turns picking?"

It's as good a guess as any, and Tori gingerly reaches for a red envelope. We all breathe a sigh of relief when there's no punishing sound.

"Pick one to help," Tori reads. Her eyebrows furrow. "Does that mean I help one of you by picking you, or whoever I pick will help someone else?"

There's no way to know, but it doesn't really matter. Either way, Susan should have this one. She's Abnegation, and I don't want her having to deal with a fear simulation or whatever else might be hiding among the remaining envelopes.

It's against the rules to state that aloud, but I turn resolutely toward Susan and simply stare. Tori gets the hint quickly.

"Susan," she says. "I think this one was made for you."

My childhood friend hesitates as she looks at me. "Tris is as selfless as I am," she says softly, and in that moment, I know she's trying to give this challenge to me for the same reasons I want her to have it. But I just nudge her gently toward the door.

"Go ahead, Susan. I know you'll do well, and that will help our whole team."

She nods slowly before making her way to the door. She glances back right before she disappears, giving me a small, Abnegation smile. And then she's gone.

My eyes lock with Tori's again as I reach for the blue envelope that I started to grasp last time. We both know that she'll have to do whatever it says.

"Pick one to fight."

For a split second longer, we both just stare, and then we're laughing. This challenge is certainly a good fit for the woman who fought her way through Erudite, despite a bad leg injury.

"Have fun," I tell her with a smile. But the door doesn't open for her.

It takes me a moment to get it. "I think you have to pick a last card for me, before you can go."

She nods, reaching randomly into the air to grab a black envelope that's near the ceiling. She cocks her head at it before reading it slowly, her mouth pinched.

"Pick one for the unknown."

I walk through the door a minute after Tori. This is only a game, and I know it, but that doesn't stop my heart from beating faster as I move down the hallway on the other side of the door. There's no way of knowing what I'm about to face.

Images flash on the walls – photos of people I don't know looking frightened, or in pain. Did they complete the same challenge I'm about to tackle?

The hallway turns ninety degrees to the right, and I continue walking, feeling more and more nervous with each step. Gradually, I notice that there are doors on both sides of the hallway, but they're all closed. As a guess, they lead to the other challenges described on the cards.

Eventually, I come to an open doorway on the right, and I know immediately that I'm supposed to enter the room. By now, my hands are warm and clammy, but I wipe them quickly on my pants, refusing to acknowledge any fear that goes with the moisture.

The room is completely dark, and I fumble around for a light switch. Nothing presents itself, and I walk slowly in, still searching. I'm two steps in when the door swings shut behind me, leaving me in utter blackness.

It's impossible to say how long I stand there, the darkness pressing into my eyes. But after some unknown period of time, I begin to hear breathing. At first, it's slow and sounds distant, but gradually it seems to come nearer, and its pace increases.

Then, I can feel it – a hot breath on the back of my neck – and I spin toward it, striking out blindly in an instinctive attempt to defend myself. My hands collide with fur and pointed teeth, and I scramble backwards as a low growl vibrates through the air. Some enormous animal is threatening me.

This isn't real. It's a game. Someone is wearing a mask, or holding up a fake animal head.

But the thought does little to ease my rapid heart rate or to stop the panting that is emerging as I attempt to breathe.

"Who is that?" I ask, my voice shaking despite my best efforts. "Who are you?"

The only answer is another deep growl. What if it really is an animal – some bizarre creature fashioned by Erudite?

My back hits the hard wall behind me, and I realize that I'm trapped. Whatever this thing is can reach me now, and there's no way to escape.

With the thought comes something else – the kind of courage that emerges when you have nothing to lose. I have to fight back. That's what this challenge is about…to see if I freeze in the face of the unknown or if I tackle it head-on.

Taking a deep breath, I move a half-step away from the wall, and then I wait. My attacker is clearly bigger than I am, and that means that I need to take Tobias' advice from so long ago. I need to let it get close, so I can use my elbows and knees – and so it's too close to use its own limbs well.

It seems to take forever, particularly because the growling is echoing too much for me to judge distance. But finally, I can sense it a couple of feet away. And then a foot and a half. And a foot….

Lunging forward, I drive my elbow hard into the form before me, at what would be the solar plexus of a person that height. If it's human.

A soft oomph sounds as the air is knocked out of it, but I don't pause. That would only give my opponent time to counter. Instead, I bring my knee up with every bit of strength I possess.

"Ow, god, Tris…" a voice hisses in pain as the form drops to the floor. Even in the darkness, I can tell that my "enemy" is now curling into a ball.

"Shit, that hurts!" It's little more than a whine, and it sounds utterly miserable – but also familiar.

"Uriah?" Even with the agony making his voice high, it's unmistakably him. "What the hell were you doing?"

"This was my challenge," he manages to gasp. "To scare you."

My mouth falls open, but then the lights are turning on, and I'm holding my hands over my eyes to block the brightness as people enter the room from somewhere. It's difficult to make out details through their cacophony of voices, but I can hear Zeke and Christina laughing uncontrollably and Amar muttering, "I'm so glad I didn't get that card."

But it's Tobias' chuckle that makes me look up through the light that's assaulting my eyes.

"Sorry," he tells Uriah, who is curled on the floor wearing an absurd werewolf mask as he cups a distinctly male part of his anatomy. "But that one was kind of inevitable." Turning to look at me, he smiles as he adds, "Tris is a very good fighter for her size."

A/N: Hopefully, it won't be as long before the next chapter is posted, but I can't guarantee anything right now. I'm still sick, and busy at work, and on top of all that, I broke a tooth and have to get it fixed. It broke while I was eating soup, of all things - seriously, how does that even happen?

Anyway, please take a moment to let me know what you thought of this chapter. Reviews always make me feel better. Thanks!